Nowadays, lower back pain is a very common occurence. The prevalence of lower back pain grows linear from the third to the sixth decade of life. It's more common with women than men. (Meucci, Fassa and Faria, 2015). It is believed that this is the cause of their anatomy (wider pelvis and pronounced anterior pelvic tilt for the needs of labour).
Studies show that lower back pain is more common with seated workers (Stefansdottir in Gudmundsdottir, 2016, Sanya in Omokhodion, 2003 and A., Amorim et. al., 2017). Lower back pain prevalence is also high in sports, the highest prevalence is found with canoeists and cross-country skiers. However, the prevalence in sports has a wide range (from 1% to 94%). (Trompeter, Fett and Platen, 2017).
Shortened muscles around the pelvis and the hip joint can cause an even bigger anterior pelvic tilt. This results in a greater lumbar lordosis, which is, according to studies, linked with higher prevalence of lower back pain and other back problems. The shortening of muscles also affects their ability to contract. Anterior pelvic tilt, while seated, causes shortening of hip and trunk flexors, elongation of knee flexors, hip and trunk extensors.
Weakened trunk extensors are tightly correlated with the onset of lower back pain. With the above explanation of hip kinesiology, we can understand how the muscles of the pelvis can affect our posture. Apart from muscles, pronation of the feet can also cause anterior pelvic tilting (it forces the lower extremities into internal rotation, which results in anterior pelvic tilting).
It is crucial to test and diagnose anterior pelvic tilt with different tests if we want to prevent anterior pelvic tilting. We can only start solving the problem after we have determined the amount of anterior pelvic tilting. The best exercises used for this are proprioceptive exercises which enforce the proper pelvic mechanics during the different tasks.
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